The Bat: Darkest Before Dawn
by LJ58
Summary: Sequel to Eternal Night. Batman is learning there is more to his transformation than first realized. And if he isn't careful, he might not only damn himself, but the world with him.
1. Chapter 1

_I do not own any D.C. characters, and am only using them to tell a tale for entertainment purposes only._

**The Bat: Darkest Before Dawn**

**By LJ58**

**1**

Bruce was just finishing his night's work, walking toward the lift to the mansion above when the colorfully clad figure dropped down in front of him. In the instant it took him to register the newcomer, he was already fly flying back to smash into a far wall.

"Master," Francis cried as he recovered, a bemused smirk on his features as the statuesque woman blatantly ignored the young teen vampire to stalk toward him.

"Three months? Three _months_, and I have to hear about this….this debacle from Wally of all people?"

"Hello, Diana," he drawled, catching her powerful fist in one hand before she could hit him again. "I've been meaning to speak to you."

"If I didn't know you better….."

"Diana, it's complicated," he began.

"It always is with you," the colorfully clad Amazon spat as she glared at him as he casually rose to his feet to stand before her.

"So, Clark didn't say anything this time?"

"He's been curiously tight-lipped of late. Just tell me, is it true? Were you _bitten_?"

"No," he smiled thinly as Francis cringed back when she started forward again only to have Diana turn to look on her as if she would gladly tear off her head, and limbs, if she only came a little closer. Something in the woman's manner told the teen this woman could likely do just that, too.

"Is that thing what I think it is," she asked coldly as Francis whined, and vanished into the shadows without looking back.

"She is a child. You should know better," Bruce told her. "You've always been a little quick to judge," he added. "You, and Clark seem to share that fault at times."

"Just tell me why Wally thinks you're a vampire if you weren't bitten?"

"As I said, it's complicated," he said, and turned to look into the shadows. "Francis, don't worry. Diana won't harm you. She's just mad at me. Again," he added with a faint smirk as he headed to the lift. "Why don't we talk upstairs. The kids were about to lay down for the day."

"So they are…..?"

"Diana," he said firmly, gesturing. "Upstairs?"

"Fine. Just let me change first," she said, and quickly spun around so fast her body blurred before she slowed, and appeared as a more sedate, casually clad businesswoman.

Bruce, already wearing casual clothes, just smiled. "It is complicated," he said as he led the way back up to the manor. "It began when Croc was rampaging around, high on _Venom."_

**B**

"Patience, my new friends," the pale, ghastly creature that haunted the sewers cackled as the slumped, hunched creatures around him slithered and hissed impatiently. "Dawn is upon us, and even we need to sleep. But soon. Soon our numbers will be enough to finally war on the Bat, and then Gotham. Fat, juicy, delicious Gotham shall be ours for the taking," the mad, demonic clown cackled.

**B**

"Find my daughter, and bring her to me," Ra's told his new second. "I do not care what it costs, or how many must fall, I want Talia here before the end of the week. If I cannot take the detective's secrets from him, then I shall take them from her. For surely my daughter will not be so hesitant to share her miracle with her father when she realizes I still live," he smiled coldly.

The man nodded.

"And, Corba," Ra's al Ghul told the masked assassin in black before he departed. "Do feel free to bring me the Bat's head do you get the chance. Just his head, mind you. I've no use for the rest of him."

The assassin smiled coldly behind his mask, confident that this was one mission he could manage with ease if he planned properly. Confident, too, that he would prove his worth to his master, and become far more than a common lackey once he proved himself in this, to him, simple matter.

"Your will be done," he intoned somberly as he nodded, and left the room where the master of assassins had buried himself in research on a matter known only to him.

**B**

"You took a dangerous chance," Diana told him after he finished his tale, which he tactfully amended to keep some of the less palatable circumstances out of it. He did know Diana, after all, and he doubted she'd understand the games played with something like Adam, who only Fate knew had survived, the necessity of Selina's sacrifice, or even his method of covering Montoya's death.

She was, like Clark, very traditionally minded about some things in that respect.

Which, he had always felt ironic considering who she was, and what she truly represented.

"As I said, at the time I didn't have a choice."

"Can't you….cure yourself, though? By using the serum you used on those poor creatures when you first faced Dracul?"

"Different circumstances, and different parameters. The refined serum I took negated the efficacy of the first."

"And are you plagued by the….thirst, as he was," she asked.

"Once a week, but Wayne-Tech's synthetic blood serum seems to satisfy that craving. In fact, I've neutralized a sizeable vampire population by offering the serum to them through…..certain liaisons. Apparently, not all of them are crazed madmen seeking empires."

"You still tread a dangerous brink," she remarked, though she sounded somewhat more relaxed.

"We all do. Every day, or night, we all walk a precipice before that brink Diana. Or can you deny you were more than tempted when Ares offered you the literal keys to Earth that last time he popped up from wherever he likes to hide?"

Diana turned from him, and looked out the large bay windows in his study. "Bruce….."

He walked up behind her, and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you going to ask? I'm standing here in the morning sun, my heart still beating, and my mind still under my own control. Yes, I _still_ consider myself as human as ever."

She sighed heavily.

"You haven't been seen much of late. I was worried….."

"Wally's antics, and Clark's paranoia aside, I've been busy. As I said, I'm working with the vampire underground now, helping those that want normal lives. Or, as normal as they can manage. I've also….inherited a pair of vampire teens that have no clue how to survive, or even control their own new incarnations. Better to train them here, than leave them on the streets where they might cause untold damage, and unleash a new plague of ghouls."

"That is admirable," he said. "But why do you have Selina, and Ra's' daughter here now?"

He gave a faint chuckle. "They, ah, were exposed to the serum, as I said."

"But they have to stay _here_?"

"Selina didn't have anyplace else to go. The fact is, she chose to stay to replace Alfred before she was…..exposed. Talia is still coping with not only her own change, but her father's…..last demise."

"Do you think he's really gone this time," Diana asked seriously.

"Honestly? I think if there is still some way to cheat death, that old devil will find it."

"After all, you did," Diana pointed out.

"True," Bruce agreed, his hand falling from her shoulder. "But we also uncovered evidence that al Ghul was investing heavily in advanced cloning technology for years before his apparent death. If his people are anywhere near competent, which seems more than likely, he could already be back, and just biding his time before unleashing some new scheme on the world."

She nodded. "Unfortunately, given my own experiences with that madman, I would have to agree."

"And don't worry about Talia. She's completely loyal to me now."

"I hope you're right," she told him.

"I am."

Diana said nothing to that as she turned back to face him.

"Bruce….."

"If you have any doubts of my lord," a newcomer stated as a voluptuous, dark-haired woman in dark green appeared in the door just then. "Then put them to rest. He remains the same admirable champion of Justice he has ever been, Princess Diana," Talia told her as the woman in the smartly tailored pantsuit eyed the woman who had been a bane to her, too, on occasion.

"Talia," Diana turned to face her with a low murmur almost a growl.

"Bruce," she nodded. "I thought I would let you know. I have a lead on father's people in Central City, and I'm flying out to investigate personally. I should be back in three days, whatever I find."

"Stay in touch," he told her quietly as Diana just stared at her.

"Of course. I shall report once I arrive, and every hour afterwards. Until my return, my lord," she actually bowed to him.

"'My lord,'" Diana quipped as Talia started to walk away.

"Merely a term of respect," Talia told her. "And, princess," she added as she paused. "If you desire him, I do understand. He is still free to enjoy his…consorts."

Diana gaped as the woman walked away, and the front door closed soon after.

_"Consorts,"_ Diana echoed, staring hard at him. "My lord?"

"It's part of that complicated constituent of our…..transformation."

"Bruce…."

He suddenly grabbed her, and held her close. "But she's right. I'm not quite as blind as you think," he said, and kissed her fiercely.

For a moment, she started to push him away. Only for a moment. Then she added her own strength to the embrace, and they both moaned into one another's mouths as their lips meshed, and they all but ground themselves to one another there before the window before Bruce withdrew, panting heavily. Eyeing her glazed expression, he smiled, and told her, "If you don't want this, you'd better leave now."

"Ahem. Actually, you might want to take it upstairs, sir," Selina drawled. "I was about to clean this room, and you two are standing in front of an _open_ window."

He glanced to the window, smiling. "It would give the paparazzi an interesting picture."

Diana glared at him.

"You may enjoy having your alter ego splashed about the tabloids," she growled. "But I certainly do not."

"So, you're leaving," Bruce asked, both amused, and slightly disappointed.

"No," she spat irritably, grabbed his arm, and tugged. "We're going upstairs."

She all but dragged him toward the stairs before pausing to stare at Selina, "You, stay downstairs," she ordered her curtly.

Selina only laughed as Bruce let the Amazon princess drag him to his own bedroom.

**B**

"Oh, Harleeeeeeeeey," a singsong voice came out of the night as the aging woman looked up from her book.

She frowned. Something about the voice sounded strangely familiar. Unfortunately, she couldn't quite place it. Just as she couldn't quite place a lot of things that used to be familiar. The docs said she had borderline dementia, and wanted her in some crackerbox of an institution.

No thanks, buddy. She had done that route to death. She would take her chances on her own. Even if the dinky apartment her state disability allowed was worse than any cell she had ever occupied in Arkham, it was still hers. And she could still come and go as she wished. Not that she wished much these days. Not with a bad hip, bad knees, and one too many aches to ignore these days. If she knew she was going to live so long, she might have taken better care of herself.

Maybe.

Listening now, she heard nothing as she started to raise her book again as she shrugged off the call to some kid's prank. She grumbled appropriately, and looked back at her book, squinting to make out certain letters.

Now where had she stopped reading?

"Harrrrrrrrr-Leeeeeeeeey. You in there, babe?"

Only one man ever talked to her like that.

"Mr. J," she asked, looking up from her wheelchair.

"You betcha, toots," the gruff, sardonic response came from the window. Only her window didn't have a balcony. It didn't even have a fire escape, or a sill. So how…..?

"Open the window, Harl, old girl, and invite me in," the manic voice commanded.

"Mr J," she frowned, and rolled the chair toward the window to part the curtains.

And screamed at the demonic visage that filled her gaze.

The pale face tittered as he looked down at the apparently unconscious woman slumped in the clunky, old wheelchair. "Guess the old girl lost her guts," he sniggered as he looked through the dirty glass. Behind him, five shapeless things clung to the old brownstone, dull eyes bright with hunger, and sharp teeth gleaming in the night.

"Guess we'll have to come back later for this one, guys," he told his ghouls. "But I know this dump. There's bound to be someone that will invite us in for a _bite_," he grinned madly as they climbed up the sheer side of the building like oversized lizards in their rotting, ragged clothing.

**B**

Diana sat up on the end of the bed, naked, but wrapped in a sheet as she eyed Bruce getting dressed.

"You're going out tonight?"

He simply looked back at her. "Something strange has been going on out on the streets lately. Homeless people are vanishing without a trace, and no one sees anything."

"You don't think your….vampires are….?'

"No. I've already questioned them. Trust me on this, Diana. They wouldn't lie to me," he said.

"They're fiends of hell," she said grimly, looking at his scarred back before he slid a shirt on and began to button it up.

"They're people who ended up involved in something they didn't want, or didn't even know existed until too late. As I said, not all of them are monsters."

"No. They're just blood-sucking demons."

Bruce sighed as he slowly turned to face her.

"Do you still trust me?"

Diana stared up at him.

"Yes," she finally nodded. "I'm not sure why, but….I do still trust you."

"Because you look at me, and you see what you expect," he nodded knowingly. She gasped, flinching slightly, but flinching all the same as he changed before her eyes as his dark wings burst from his human flesh, and flowed out behind him as his fangs extended, and his eyes took on an amber, rather than crimson hue.

"Now, do you still trust me," he asked in a voice that sounded deeper than ever, and slightly ominous.

Diana stood up, clutching the sheet around her shapely body as she looked at him. "This….is what….you've become?"

He looked down at her, having grown more than a few inches when he transformed.

"Yes," he stated needlessly.

She stared up at him, and swallowed hard. "Oddly enough, you look…..almost….godly just now. Not….demonic. Godly. Or….._angelic_."

The words resonated. Bruce ignored them for the moment.

"The question is, will you continue to trust me seeing me like this? Would you be able to accept my judgment even if you think it goes against what you feel you believe right?"

"Like helping vampires," she said quietly.

"Not all of them. Just those that truly want another chance. A way to live quiet, normal lives. Anyone else is fair game."

"When you said you're training those teens…..?'

"I haven't had a partner lately," he said blandly, smiling faintly. "Now I have two."

"From what I've seen, you have four."

Bruce smiled that grim smile she knew well enough. "You haven't answered me."

"I'm….confused, and I'll admit it, Bruce. Part of me always hoped we might have….something else. But…..I'll continue to trust you, until you prove my trust is misguided."

"That's all I ask. If it helps, you can talk to Fate. I've been…..counseling with him on this subject."

"Exactly what subject is that," she asked. "Because I get the feeling you've been dancing around mentioning something particular all day."

"Talk to Dr. Fate first," he told her. "I'd rather you heard it from an objective party first. And there aren't any more impartial than Fate unless you're violating his belief in Order."

Diana nodded. "All right. But this conversation isn't over," she said, dropping her sheet, and reaching for her own clothes.

He stared at her briefly, then smiled. "If it helps, I would have preferred things went differently, too, Diana. But in our line of work….."

"I know. Take care of yourself, Bruce."

"You, too."

Then he walked to the door, and left her to dress. He was gone before she was ready to leave.

**B**

"We've got trouble, master," Francis told him the moment he dropped into the cave, already in full costume.

"What did you find out?"

"Reports of a gang terrorizing an apartment building," she told him grimly. "But get this. The reports claim the leader is a white-faced monster who is climbing up and down walls."

_"Joker,"_ he hissed, and felt the name like a curse slide from his tongue.

"Do you think _he_ turned him?"

"I wouldn't put it past him. Either way, he has to be stopped. That madman won't care if he turns the whole city into ghouls. In fact, he'd probably do it anyway. For a joke."

"What kind of joke is that," the young woman gasped.

"His kind. So don't take chances if you face him. Leave him to me, because he will hurt, or kill you if you give him the slightest chance."

Frank came up behind them, having already dressed in their usual cat-suit, his own equipment belt in place.

"If he's raised ghouls, we'll have to put him down to stop them, won't we," Francis asked.

"It's the traditional method," Batman nodded at her.

"Then that damns us all the more. Especially you," she reminded him.

"Maybe. Only I've never been the predictable sort," he said as he turned from loading his own equipment belt. "Nor do I intend to kill even that twisted lunatic if I can avoid it."

"But if he's turned….."

"There's always a way. If you look for it," he told her. "Now listen carefully. If we find him, you will leave him to me. Just keep the ghouls from attacking innocents, and don't let anyone see your faces. Understand? And don't forget your filter masks and gloves. You don't want to be inhaling any garlic, or touching the silver in your weapons."

"Definitely," she agreed, still remembering how easily such innocent elements could destroy them now. Well, her and Frank, anyway.

"Let's go," he said, and led the way to the car.

_To Be Continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

_I do not own any D.C. characters, and am only using them to tell a tale for entertainment purposes only._

**The Bat: Darkest Before Dawn**

**By LJ58**

**2**

"C'mon, Harley, old girl," the madman scratched at her door as she sat huddled in her wheelchair in the far corner of her apartment, an old, dusty Bible clutched in her hands like a shield. "It'll be a real laugh. Just let me in, and we can a real blast again. Forever, and ever!"

"No! You go away. You're just a monster. A demon. My Gran warned me about things like you. You're not my Mr. J. You're….. You're evil!"

"Open this door, bitch," the mad clown thundered, banging violently, but seemingly unable to pierce that fragile, wooden door.

"No," she shrieked. "Oh, God, help me," she cried, feeling as if she might not make it to morning alive just then.

And to think, she used to laugh at those zombie movies for being so corny!

"Har-leeeeey, you are really starting to get on my…."

The crash that sounded had nothing to do with the things she had been hearing all night.

"Clear the floor," a gruff voice snarled, and she felt a momentary shiver of hope at hearing _that_ voice. A voice she also knew. It had sounded in her nightmares often enough at times. And her dreams.

"Spineless rabble," the Bat growled in a tone she had never heard even him use. "Stand back. Now!"

"What are you waiting for," Joker screeched. "Shred that flying rodent!"

"Forget it, Joker," came the dour response as she dared roll her chair just a little closer to the door. "They know their true master."

"You? Oh, this _is_ a sick joke! A twisted….."

"Nice try. But not good enough. Time for your medicine, clown," she heard as the crazed clown outside her door now howled, and began to curse in a manner even she had never heard from him.

"You….! You can't be….! I was cheated, damn you," she heard him babbling now as she heard other skittering, silent things moving around almost frantically in the hall outside her door.

"You two, round them all up. Don't let any of them escape. And make sure all the victims get the antidote," the Bat's voice carried easily again. "Check every room from the roof, to the basement."

"Yes, sir," a feminine voice called.

Not Batgirl. Not that Red was a girl any longer. She wasn't even sure if she was playing hero these days. No one had seen _her_ in years.

She jumped as a soft knock sounded on the door. "Ms. Quinn, are you all right," he called as if knowing she were there all along.

"Y-Y-Yeah. Peachy, you old bat," she said, and giggled at her own pun. "Is…. Was that really….?"

"It was. Don't worry. I don't think he's so far gone that my antigen won't cure him. You weren't bitten, or scratched?"

She daringly cracked the door to peer up, and out into living shadow.

Yep, that was _him_!

"Do you mind if I come in to make sure none of the others managed to get inside? Joker might have been bound by the old rules, but his ghouls could have snuck in without your knowing it if they found an avenue."

"Uh….sure," she said, and unchained the door only after she saw an unconscious Joker laying bound hand and foot on the floor looking far less demonic than he had at the window.

"H-Hey, I thought this was all just movie stuff, Bats," she said as she rolled her chair back to let him enter her apartment. "I didn't think….."

"It's real. You did the right thing by staying inside, and keeping your door closed."

He looked at the Bible in her lap, and smiled grimly.

"You'd have done better with a silver cross, though. Or garlic."

"I watch movies, too, but lately I can't even afford stainless steel. Let alone silver."

The caped hero walked through her small apartment, his eyes searching every corner, and inspecting her closets, windows, and even her vents.

"You should be okay now. I left a few silvered, garlic bulbs at your vent, and at your windows, just in case we missed any of the ghouls. If you hear anything, just stay inside, and you should be safe."

"There's…..more of those things out there," Harley asked, the aging woman looking far less the manic jester she had once been, and more a helpless victim that feared the dark. He couldn't help but muse on how things had changed for her.

"There are always more," he told her honestly.

"Y'know, Bats, I heard you were killed a few months ago. Yet….here you are."

"I'll always be here," he told her as a young, masked man in black appeared to drag Joker away as Batman turned toward the door. "You should know that," he told her with a faint smile before he firmly closed the door behind him.

Harley stared at the door for a moment, then rolled over to bolt it, latch it, and closed the deadbolt. A part of her felt reassured the Bat was still out there busting up the bad guys she used to help. Part of her was glad he was there, not dead, and still defending Gotham. Even her, shocking as that seemed to her. A part of her, however, remembered every word he had told her.

She clung to her mother's old Bible all night all the same. Even as she wondered how even the Batman had cheated age, and maybe even death. She wasn't sure she really wanted to know just then.

**B**

Joker woke up in his own cell, back in Gotham, and once again mortal.

Unfortunately, that also meant he was still dying of cancer.

"Not fair," he howled long into the following day. "It's not _fairrrrr_!"

No one, of course, listened.

**B**

"How did you know the antigen would work on the Joker, or his ghouls," Francis asked as they watched him work at something just before dawn.

"I wasn't sure. I hoped, since it had worked before, that it would work again. We were lucky this time," he admitted.

"I'll say," Selina said as she appeared, bringing them fresh blood packets, and a carafe of hot coffee for Bruce, knowing his penchant for staying up late no matter the hour. "You should have had some kind of backup on this one, Bruce. What if that clown had been more than you could handle?"

"Then I wouldn't be a very good _lord of the night_, would I? Or don't you think that both sides of the vampire bands were out there were watching tonight, and seeing what I would do?"

"You think it was a test?"

Batman nodded. "I know it was. Dumont was too obvious. He was a blunt instrument. Someone _aimed_ him at us. I think there is another rising lord out there, and he's being clever. Testing, and probing. Waiting to see what I will do. What I can do."

"Not….Adam," Selina asked.

"Oddly enough, I believe that creature when he claims to be bored with the whole mantle of night lord. No, there is someone else out there. And I don't have a single doubt that he didn't manipulate things to send Dumont to the Joker, and then sat back to watch what would happen."

"Not Ra's," Selina asked.

"No. Ra's is clever, but he's more about the planet's welfare, than demonic warfare. Whoever is out there, he's obviously old, skilled, and has an agenda we do not yet perceive."

He looked at the two vampire teens, and told them, "We'll need to be far more careful. Tonight was easy. Too easy. We were likely all being tested, and if I'm right, those tests are going to become more frequent, and more difficult."

"Just when I hoped things were about to get back to normal," Selina sighed.

Bruce simply stared at her as he reached for the coffee rather than the blood. He had not been lying to Diana when he told her he could now go several days without it. It wasn't about the thirst now. It was something else. Something….primal. Something….elemental.

"Well," Selina sighed in response to his expression. "As normal as things get for us."

He gave a noncommittal grunt as he drank the coffee black, and hot, and then turned to the computer. "Any word from Talia?"

"She landed forty minutes ago. She said she was about to head out to meet her contact just before you came in," Selina reported. "I was waiting to hear from her when you arrived."

"Then I'll wait."

"Master….?"

"Go to bed," he told the twins. "It's been a long night," he stated needlessly, having stopped a few routine assaults; in addition to chasing down a few rogue ghouls that had escaped Joker's control after he was neutralized.

"We will await your call," the young girl told him earnestly as the ever silent Frank simply nodded.

He didn't reply. He was focused on the data left behind by Talia's earlier research.

**B**

"Dr. Fate," Diana called out as she walked into his tower after transporting there later that evening.

"He's in the sanctum, Diana," the ever unflappable Inza told her as the woman appeared as if on cue.

"Thank you," she nodded at the woman who only smiled, and walked away.

She walked remembered corridors, and finally found the door she sought, and stepped inside what seemed a slice of the Cosmos itself swirling around her. She looked around, not at the incredible panorama of worlds beyond worlds, but for the familiar blue and gold figure she knew as an occasional ally.

"Dr. Fate," she said, walking over to stand beneath where he hovered in the air over her, his face ever hidden behind the golden helmet he wore.

"Wonder Woman. What brings you to me this evening? I have detected no major calamities that would require my assistance."

"I just came from….Batman. He told me you had been….talking with him about his….changes. He told me you could help me understand. What happened to him? What….is he?"

"He is Batman, of course. No more, no less."

"Don't be clever with me," she spat. "I've met wizards before, and I know your ways. Just tell me the truth, mystic," Diana demanded. "Or must I use my own magics," she demanded, putting a hand over her lasso.

"There is no need for violence, or threats, Amazon," Dr. Fate told her as he hovered over her head as he sat cross-legged in the air where he had been mediating when she entered his inner sanctum. "Not that even your lasso could break the will of _Nabu_. Still, if Batman sent you here, then he is obviously willing for me to share my knowledge with you. Understand, however, that what I tell you could be…..damaging if the wrong people heard what I am about to tell you."

"I am not given to gossip, Fate," she told him curtly. "You, of all people, know that."

"Indeed," he nodded, and stretched his legs, and settled to the ground before her. "Then, come with me. For what I'm about to impart to you will require a…..journey of sorts. If you are willing to truly listen."

"More than willing."

"Good. But understand, it begins not with Bruce, but with a darker, more ancient figure."

"He told me he refined Dracul's blood. That he used it….."

"That is but a part of it. What Bruce has done is something even he has yet to fully comprehend, or appreciate. Come, and I shall show you. For it begins long ago, with the original vampire lord."

"The Romanian?"

"A pretender. _Dracul_ is far more than even mortal legends portend. He was ancient even before the Impaler waged war on the world. Now, take my hand, watch, and listen. But say nothing, and do not leave my side. For the journey is as dangerous as the knowledge you are about to uncover," Fate told her as he conjured a portal, and the very air shimmered around them.

Right before they vanished.

**B**

Talia crept through the shadow around the warehouse where her contact claimed that many of the League of Shadows had been operating of late.

She saw no indications of recent activity. No sign of any guards, or extra security.

Of course, her father, and his people were very good at presenting innocuous fronts to others.

She climbed the side of the warehouse, scaled the scaffolding where work of some sort was being done, and reached the roof to pad down to a window that she might use to infiltrate the structure. She was about to test it when she heard the creak of movement behind her, and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid a hard staff that slammed into the spot where she had been kneeling.

"Well, then," the tall, bald assassin smiled coldly. "We do this the hard way, traitoress," he growled, spinning his staff as he eyed her with smug intent.

**B**

Diana stared incredulously as they reappeared not where she might have expected, but in a sunlit, pastoral setting where a young woman with raven hair lay beside a handsome man resting his head on her ample breasts. Both, she noted, were completely naked.

She turned to Fate, starting to question him, but he gestured her to silence.

Then pointed.

Diana turned away from the couple stretched out beneath the sun, indolently enjoying the afternoon, and gaped.

Could that truly be…..?

_ Him_?

The winged shadow moved behind the trees, moving and slinking and dancing like sunlight on water, save it was living darkness that slithered through the forest just beyond the small glade where the pair were lounging.

She focused on the shadow, sensing there was something portentous about this moment, but not quite sure why it seemed so familiar.

"Do not bring your preconceptions here, Princess Diana," Fate warned her quietly. "What you are seeing are _archetypes_ in motion. Representations of what has been, or might have been. True students of the occult arts know that the past is just as fluid as the future."

"Doesn't that make the present just as malleable?"

"Of course. Time is not a constant linear construct taught in Western thought, and Man's current sciences insist. No more than the gods you know are the ultimate expression of deity in the multiverse."

"I'm not even going to go there," Diana told him as she turned to look on the scene before her again, which seemed to have changed again.

"Wise of you," he told her as she watched a shadowy image that was both familiar, and not, approach not the woman who strolled to a nearby creek, but to the man lounging on the grass watching her.

She did not hear what was said, but she saw the man's face turn dark crimson with rage.

"Are you mad," the man said in a now audible voice.

"You will do as I say, or you will spend an eternity writhing in hells you do not yet realize exist," the winged shadow sneered as the man cringed before him.

"He who is not to be Named has said….."

"Do you see that pretender here? Have you seen his agents of late? He has abandoned you. His agents envy, and despise you. Make the bargain, and you will have power and fame such as you cannot yet even imagine. _Worlds_ shall fall at your feet. Unborn nations shall grovel before you. You…. Yes, you….. Shall become a _god_."

Diana stared, knowing that tone from countless encounters with gods and demigods.

'_Don't do it_," she wanted to scream at the man who hesitantly reached out to take the bloody hand that had emerged from that stygian, shadowy form.

A part of her knew the warning would be vain, and far too late. She sensed this had happened long ago, and yet was happening right before her eyes. Then she realized something Dr. Fate must have been trying to impress on her all along.

"Bruce…is facing this very same decision. Isn't he?"

"We all face this very decision every moment we walk the precipice where Chaos and Light battle. Do you not even now still wonder what would have happened had _you_ yielded to Ares?"

Diana said nothing to that as she stared back at the man, and saw the bloody hand clutching his so tightly that darkness seemed to be flowing down from the demon's hand to the mortal's. His tanned, perfect flesh was covered as if by living shadow that flowed down to cover him entirely, and then she heard the woman scream.

Diana, and the man turned to stare her way.

"No," the man cried, and tried to rise, to run to the female who was being surrounded by five, serpentine shapes of darkness, ripping and tearing the very flesh from her bones before their eyes.

"The sacrifice is necessary. When innocent blood flows, the bond will be set, and all power will be yours."

"But not her," the man wailed. "It wasn't supposed to be….!"

The shadow loomed.

"There is another way. Another….acceptable sacrifice. But you would have to deliver it….personally."

"Who? Where," he demanded, looking anxiously toward the woman screaming in agony as she was slain by degree, the bones visible through the bloody wounds she suffered in more than a few places by then.

"Your brother. Struck down by your own hand."

"I cannot….!"

"Deliver him, or the woman's soul is mine," the shadow crowed, and vanished.

Leaving only sunlight silence around them as Diana fought the urge to be sick at the sight of the bloody bones left behind.

"This….seems so familiar," Diana murmured, watching the man struggle with his guilt and ambition for days before he finally struck down his own brother in a bloody assault.

"Archetypes always are," Dr. Fate intoned blandly as the shadow mocked the sacrifice when the man later demanded his lover's return, only to learn that he had brought his power and ambition with both sacrifices, and that the dead could not return. Not truly.

"Then release her!"

The shadow left him screaming defiance on a world he would bathe in blood as his power manifested in an immortality that cost him all around him. He would live through generations, watching all that might become dear to him in time wither, and die. Watching the same patterns again, and again, and never able to free himself of the unholy bargain sealed in the blood of innocents.

When Diana found herself back in Fate's tower, she found herself more confused than illuminated.

"You said Bruce is facing….the same decision."

"Archetypes exist for a reason. You learn from them, or you become one."

"Will you just spit it out for once," the Amazon demanded angrily of him, her fists clenched at her frustration.

"Bruce has unknowingly made a bargain with a greater power than he knows. He faces a decision. One that may yet damn him. Or that may free him. But the decision looms. As does the Dark. As you know, Diana," Dr. Fate told her somberly, "In all such pacts, Chaos tends to stack the deck, as one might say. You should be very careful if you intend to stand at his side through this matter. Very careful."

"And you're still not telling me anything," she complained.

"I have told you all that can be said. Even a divinely gifted Amazon warrior must realize that some answers must be earned. I have shown you what I may, and given what is available to offer. The rest….is yours to decipher."

Diana suddenly found herself standing on the outside of the magic tower, staring at a blank stone wall.

"I truly hate mystics," she grumbled ominously, staring at the featureless wall.

_To Be Continued….._


	3. Chapter 3

_I do not own any D.C. characters, and am only using them to tell a tale for amusement purposes only._

**The Bat: Darkest Before Dawn**

**By LJ58**

**3**

"We should have heard from Talia by now," Bruce told Selina, eyeing the computer as if it were somehow at fault.

"I agree. What do we do?"

He glanced toward the twins, but said nothing.

Then he eyed Selina.

"Did she carry one of my radios?"

"Of course," the voluptuous brunette nodded. "And it worked fine when she reported she had landed. We just haven't heard from her since."

"If she still has it, I can track the signal," he said, going to computer to sit in the chair, his fingers already dancing over the buttons of the keyboards even as he did. "Prep the Batwing. Whatever is going on, if Talia couldn't check in, it has to mean trouble."

"Are we going," Francis asked, her eyes betraying concern for the woman, as much as for their master, and mentor.

"No," Batman told her. "You'll stay here, and continue training. For now, we don't want to risk you two if I'm delayed. The Batwing might be able to protect you if the sun rose, but I would prefer we not find out the hard way."

"Nor would I," the vampiric teen shuddered.

Batman said nothing as Selina went to another console, pressed a few buttons, and the Car began to drop down on a hydraulic lift, even as an ominous shape descended from the ceiling to replace it. The twins stared at the stylish aircraft, and while Franklyn couldn't speak, his glittering eyes betrayed his interest.

"Another time," Batman growled, as if guessing his interest without even seeing him. "Training. Now," he said as he rose to his feet, and adjust his cowl. "Selina, be careful. Ra's al Ghul's people know us. Remember that. If they're striking against Talia, they might come here next."

"Then why leave," Francis asked uneasily.

"Because Talia's signal isn't moving. Guard your backs," he told the three. "And remember. No matter what happens, no killing. You cross that line, and it's over."

Franklyn nodded somberly.

"We know, master," Francis called him.

The twin simply nodded herself. She still had concerns about their eventual fate, since they had both killed, and drained blood from living victims before they escaped Dumont. At the time, it was the only way to survive. Now, it was a burden that made Francis fear that they might still be beyond redemption.

"I'll be in touch. And get back as fast as I can," he added. "Keep the channel open, and, Selina? You might want to activate all the manor's defenses. Just in case."

"Consider it done," she told him, and watched him glide, more than stalk over to the stylized jet, and leapt into the open cockpit.

The turbines whined as they warmed up, and then the cockpit was lowering to conceal him even as the jets began to scream before the Batwing seemed to explode up, and out of the Batcave in the proverbial blink of an eye.

"Whoa," Francis murmured, staring at the place the aircraft had been.

"Well, you heard the boss," Selina told them. "You told need anything before you hit the gym?"

"We're good," Francis assured her. "We…..ate after we got up."

"Right. I'm going to lock down the manor. You two remember to stick to the regimen. Bruce gets irritable when you don't."

"We've noticed," Francis smiled wanly after a glance at her twin who mentally echoed the impression.

**B**

Batman eyed the consoles around him, arming stealth, tracking, and putting the weapons on standby-ready as he sped toward his destination.

His heads-up display noted the signal he was following had not moved in more than six hours.

Never a good sign.

Either something had happened, or it was a trap.

Experience told him it was a trap.

Considering the League was involved, he knew it would be beyond clever.

Of course, if Ra's, in any form, was back, it was never a good idea to underestimate him. The man was a master tactician, and had centuries of experience at handing his enemies. Even he could not count how many times he had almost lost to the man. Or simply ended up stalemated.

He wanted to believe even the master of assassins would not overtly act against Talia, or actually harm her, but he had long since removed such sentimental projections on a man whose heart had died generations ago so far as he could tell. He might claim to care about the planet, and after a fashion he might, but in the end, it was all about the man's ego.

Which was the only edge Batman had over him at times.

He had learned to remove his own ego years ago.

In the end, it was all about the war. The crusade. Nothing else mattered to him.

He felt a tremor in his deepest core, and frowned behind his cowl

Nothing else had mattered, he forced himself to admit. But…..had that changed.

A part of him still cared for Diana. She was beautiful. Daring. A genuine demigod in her own right. Like the often insufferable Clark. Still, when he had been with her, he had found himself thinking of…..others.

Talia.

Selina.

Even….Pamela.

His eyes rounded as a belatedly realization made him feel beyond foolish.

"I'm reacting like an amateur," he growled, and threw a toggle, activating his auto-pilot. Then he drew a deep breath, leaned back, and closed his eyes.

Reacting. Not thinking. Not using all his tools. All his new abilities, and senses.

Fool!

He drew another breath, eyes still close, and shut down his own screaming concerns.

And opened his mind.

**B**

Talia knew she was headed for trouble.

Even prepared, she was overwhelmed.

She had forgotten to 'eat' before leaving, and the nearly thirty assassins caught her lagging. She put down almost half of them, but she was not at her best when she had infiltrated the warehouse.

A trap, obviously.

They swarmed her. Overwhelmed her.

Then dragged her to…..

Not her father.

A pale shadow of the man he had been.

She said as much.

He thanked her by backhanding her across the cell where she had been chained.

Silver chains.

Thanks to her beloved's tinkering, it didn't truly bother her. But she was so hungry. So…..weak. She began to eye her guards, and consider tearing out their throats.

One of them, a cold-eyed man with a sadistic glint in his dark eyes, seemed to know what she was feeling. He taunted her. Mocked her. The clone of her late father said nothing. He simply took her blood, and tissue, and smirked coldly at her before leaving.

"The detective will be along soon. Stake him out under the rising sun for me, Corba," the sadistic man had been told. "Be sure my treacherous daughter watches."

Talia said nothing.

They didn't know about Bruce's immunities. They didn't know the truth about the serum he had refined. Only she feared they would learn soon enough thanks to the blood they took from her. Blood she needed just then.

Outside the door, her incredibly sensitive hearing heard the orders relayed.

Not a mere thirty for her beloved. Her master.

A full sixty assassins, all elite, waited on the Bat to show. All armed with silver, and the usual deadly weapons.

As if sixty master assassins weren't enough of an edge.

Her father had not changed, though. Not even in this unnatural incarnation.

He still wanted his show. He wanted his accolades.

Even now, he wanted Bruce to know who had brought him low, and to suffer for it.

For all their battles, she realized her father didn't truly know her beloved's heart at all.

"And, after," Corba had asked his departing master, eyeing her coldly as ever.

"We shall see," was all Ra's al Ghul had said, not even looking back at her as he had left.

She had every faith in Bruce. Every belief in his skills, and abilities.

Still, sixty assassins!

_"Talia,"_ the warm regard in the mental voice swept over her, filling her with a presence she did not at first understand.

"_Master_," she almost blurted out, but kept her lips sealed even as she belatedly realized Bruce was again surprising her.

"_I sense you, Talia_," he replied in her mind. "_You need not speak. Just….think of what happened. Show me what you saw_."

She did.

"_Don't take their blood_," he cautioned her without fear for himself. "_I am bringing more synthetic blood with me. You cannot risk your soul by feeding on even that vermin_," he cautioned her.

"_Ubu has an heir, beloved_," she thought fiercely. "_Far worse, and far more dangerous_."

"_There is always someone worse_," he replied typically.

"_What will you do? I am deep inside this false warehouse. Heavily guarded_."

The laughter in her mind surprised her.

"_Let me worry about the trap. You relax. I am coming now_," he said more grimly.

Then, just that quickly, he was gone.

**B**

"We have his aircraft on radar," a man reported to Corba over his radio, just loud enough for Talia to hear him.

"Shoot it down. Even if he survives that, it makes his escape all the more difficult," the assassin ordered.

Talia gasped as she heard several muted thuds of distant explosions. Two. Three. A pause, then a fourth.

"Report," Corba spat. "Did you strike him?"

"It….. It's still coming," the sentry reported. "It's as if we never struck it, but our weapons were locked on….."

"Never mind. It's likely a diversion. All sentries, prepare. The Bat is on his way," he barked.

"The Bat...is already here," a low, ominous growl came out of the shadows as Batman, great black wings extended, dropped to the floor from the high ceiling overhead.

Corba stared, seeing the glittering eyes, the batlike wings that replaced the usual cape, and the long, glistening fangs.

"God be merciful," the man hissed, and raised two silver-tipped sai. "The tales were true! You have become a _demon!"_

Batman smiled.

It was a hellish smile.

"Be very glad that I am not," he said, and drove a flattened palm into the man's chest. Corba flew down the short corridor, hitting the far door with enough force to warp the wooden panel.

It said something to his condition that he didn't immediately pass out. He had just enough strength to lift the radio he had not dropped, and rasp, "He's…..here!"

Men had to shove the door open forcefully, shoving his now unconscious body away to enter the narrow corridor meant to be a trap. The same one that forced Talia into a dead-end lined with enemies.

Only even as they streamed in to the makeshift cell-block, they found nothing.

Even their prisoner was gone. The shackles broken like twine.

**B**

"You continue to surprise me, beloved," Talia murmured, content to be with him in spite of the cramped space behind the Batwing's primary, and only seat.

"As does your father, me. Even I never considered cloning."

"I…..saw him. Spoke to him. It's…. It's not truly him. He's more a pale copy of the man we knew. I could sense it in him. He looks like him. Sounds like him. Only…."

"There is no _soul,"_ Batman asked.

"Exactly," she nodded, reaching for another blood packet. "This isn't too bad when you are….truly hungry," she sighed, simply sinking her fangs into the side of the thick plastic.

"That might actually make him far more dangerous. We'd better shift our communication frequencies, and beacon signals when we return," Batman told her more practically. "Considering they have your gear, they'll likely try to use it to lure us into another trap."

"Yes," she sighed, and dropped the empty packet.

"And, Talia. I'm very glad you did not yield to the thirst."

Talia stared at the bleak silhouette he made before her as he piloted the grim craft home.

"I didn't want to disappoint you," she told him quietly.

"You didn't. You did good. Very good. Still, I'd better contact Flash, and let him know the League seems to have set up shop behind his back."

"Do you think he can manage them?"

"He's often a naïve, self-centered idiot, but even I cannot underestimate his powers. I've seen him beat some truly dangerous, and very deadly foes in his time. When, one-on-one, you would have bet against him."

Talia gave a faint murmur, and replied, "Father often said much the same of you."

Batman said nothing to that.

"Batman," Selina suddenly all but shouted over the radio just then.

"Here."

"We're under attack. The manor is being directly attacked, and I think they're inside the cav….."

"Selina? Selina," he barked, but the channel was silent except for a burst of static.

Batman's gloved fists clenched on the yoke.

"He played us. Lured me out, so he could attack the others without me there to help them."

"What will we do?"

"Make a call, and pray we're not too late," he said, but did not reach for the radio.

Instead, he simply stared out into the night with such unyielding intensity that it seemed the might slice the very heavens open with his gaze.

"Beloved?"

"Now," he growled. "We go to war."

_To Be Continued…_


	4. Chapter 4

_I do not own any D.C. characters, and am only using them to tell a tale for amusement purposes only._

**The Bat: Darkest Before Dawn**

**By LJ58**

**4**

"Mistress Selina," Francis called to her as she came out of the gym.

"What is it?"

"I'm…..feeling something. Something…..wrong."

Selina didn't argue. She had been feeling uneasy about something ever since Bruce had departed. It was getting worse.

She walked over to the supercomputer, tapped in the access codes, and switched on the monitors.

"Shadows," Francis hissed, seeing the movement on the multiple screens that displayed the manor grounds.

"No. _Assassins,"_ she told her.

"Do we confront them?"

Eve as the young vampire asked that question, the cavern rumbled as one monitor showed an explosion on the north side of the manor that took out an entire wing.

"We stay down here," Selina barked, and reached for another panel. "Batman," she all but shouted into the monitor.

"Here," came the typically gruff reply.

"We're under attack. The manor is being directly attacked, and I think they're inside the cave, too," she added, a sudden niggling making her leapt aside even as a small, explosive dagger impacted with the communications panel, and exploded with just enough force to take out half of the computer.

She and Francis had reacted just fast enough to have evaded any shrapnel.

"Good reflexes," the masked assassin smiled coldly as nine men in black moved to surround them. "But they will not save you from the League of Assassins, demon."

Selina turned to Francis, and murmured, "No killing."

Even as Frank dropped down on top of one assassin, easily smashing into unconsciousness as a foot unerringly found the jaw of another.

Overhead, the rumble of more explosions sounded, and she hated to think what they were doing to the manor. To their home.

Only the rumbling was not stopping now. It was growing, and surrounding them, and even as she and Francis closed on the nearest assassins, thick, green vines burst out of living rock to find, and seize not only the nine, but another seven hidden in the shadows.

"I think Pamela is here," Selina said, still not relaxing as the vines held the conscious, and unconscious in the air, and simply squeeze. The few conscious men suddenly stiffened, and went limp.

"Are they….?"

Selina walked past Francis, and put a hand on one of the men's throats.

"Still alive. Knowing Ivy, I doubt she's just tickling them, though. She's nothing, if not obsessive."

"Do we go up to stop the others," Francis asked again.

Selina looked at the pair, and felt an strange, yet familiar pulse in her mind.

"No," she murmured. "The others are coming. They will handle the assassins on top. We stay here."

Franklyn came up behind them, nodding grimly, and pointed.

Selina nodded back.

"I know. Don't bother searching these vermin, I doubt they have the detonator. Get ready to fall back. We may have to leave the cave."

"Where do we go?"

Selina glanced around, then saw the leading tendril, like a green beacon, and smiled.

"We follow Pamela's lead. Let's go."

**B**

"My God," Talia rasped as the Batwing dove toward the flaming silhouette below them. "Are they mad? Father would have never….."

"As you said before," Batman growled, his slitted eyes locked on his burning home. "That _shell_ is not truly your father. Get ready to face our enemy, but remember…."

"Out of deference to you, beloved, I shall not kill them. Though I sorely wish to tear out their black hearts just now."

Batman would never admit just how much he wanted to just then, too. He could only now see the good in Alfred's timely ending. He would never have to face this madness again. Yet, deep within, in a primal part of his heart and mind even he found difficult to subdue, he raged at the men that dared invade his home.

His sanctuary.

"No. Do not kill them," he growled again, "But do feel free to instruct them on the mistake they have made this evening," he told her as he flipped a toggle, and the cockpit's canopy rose, and slid back into its housing in the hull.

Cool night air rushed past them making speech almost impossible just then as he released his seat's harness, and pushed himself upright as the sleek, stylized jet flew over the manor below. Even as it arched down, and began to rise once more, two figure dropped from it's shadow toward the shadowy yard beyond the manor that was now fully ablaze on the east wing.

Even as Batman's wings gently lowered him to the ground, and Talia took a rolling tumble to absorb the impact and inertia of her own fall, the wall on the west wing exploded. The front door, both saw, had already been kicked in, and men were streaming inside even as several faltered, looking back at them as they rose to face them.

"Talia," he said, eyes glittering amber in the dark. "Show them what happens to uninvited guests here. Don't be gentle."

"With pleasure, beloved," she smiled.

Even as men on either side of them began to wail as massive, thorny vines rose to entwine around them, heedless of their struggles.

"I believe Ivy has already arrived," Batman smiled grimly as he walked purposely toward the door, ignoring the few men standing around him that had yet to be imprisoned by the surging greenery around them. "Good."

Talia noted that any man grabbed by those vines didn't struggle long. They seemed to be going limp almost instantly.

"She is not….?"

"Ivy controls the toxins her plants exude as well as she controls herself. They are only sleeping. They will not wake unless she allows it."

"Or you do," Talia realized, snapping a kick to a man that garnered enough courage to try rushing them from behind.

He yelped as his jaw fractured under her unyielding heel, and he went flying back to land sprawling on the grass before coiling into a fetal ball, cradling his ruined jaw as he wailed in agony.

Batman stepped inside, and saw the darkness shift, and move toward him.

Then he realized the mass of assassins were imply waiting on him. Trying to make a united stand.

"You made two mistakes tonight," Batman said in his grimmest tone as he stepped into the receiving hall of Bruce Wayne's home."

"Only two, pretender," a man dared speak.

"Two. One, you invaded my home."

"And two," the same man asked, lifting twin katana that flashed silver in the faint light.

"Two," Batman said, ignoring the lethal weapons as he shifted slightly, his wings folding behind him as he raised his hands in a posture familiar to any that knew the deadlier arts of unarmed combat. "You did not flee when you had the chance."

The assassin scoffed, and lunged forward, his blades whirling a deadly dance even as his companions moved with him.

Batman didn't hesitate.

Armored gauntlets deflected razor-edged steel edged with silver, and he did not bother to pull punches, or kicks, though he did face only ordinary men. Only they were men trained from birth to become soulless assassins that lived and died at the call of a madman.

In but minutes, twenty-two men lay limp, or groaning around him, and Talia walked inside after dealing with the man launching grenades at the house. He would not be firing any more explosives for a very long time. If even modern science could repair his crushed hands. Even she was genuinely astonished at the strength in her hands now.

Such power, she mused. Yet she instinctively knew it was not a tenth of what her beloved now wielded, and yet held in check with his iron will.

Batman stood in the middle of the carnage within his burning home, and ignored the smoke as he looked around.

"There are no more above. Come. We should go below….."

Before he could finish, the entire house rocked as massive explosions detonated beneath the manor, and the very ground opened beneath them, swallowing the house, and all around it.

**B**

"Superman," Green Arrow called over the comlink as the Kryptonian flew back from stopping a massive tsunami from striking the Philippines.

It would have been an unparalleled disaster had it swept the island nation, but thankfully, he had been up to the task, and diffused the danger. The grateful inhabitants had tried to get him to stay for a feast in his honor, but he demurred, claiming he had other emergencies to handle.

Of all the issues he faced as a world champion, he had yet to learn how to handle the overwhelming gratitude of some of those he saved. Frankly, to his mind, he was just doing the job to which he had been born. Perhaps, he sometimes mused, destined.

"Go, Arrow." he replied, eyes and ears scanning the world over which he flew, ever alert for more trouble.

"You wanted to be kept aware of anything unusual in Gotham?"

"Yes. Is….? Did something happen?"

"You could say that. Someone just blew _Bruce Wayne's _playhouse off the map," the emerald archer declared.

"My God. Do you know if….?"

"The scanners just detected the explosion. And I can't get Bats on any channel," he added, anticipating the Kryptonian's next question.

"I'm on my way. Keep your eyes on the location. See if you can find out…."

"I can already guess. Five minutes before the explosion, Bats sent Flash a warning that the League of Assassins was active in his city, following a cloned copy of our old buddy Ra's."

Superman said nothing to that as he clenched his jaw, and added speed.

If the League of Assassins was involved, he had little doubt they were in the middle of yet another convoluted plot. One that could, and likely would threaten the entire world if the self-styled champion of the planet his way. Ra's al Ghul was an unparalleled genius, but in his way, he was worse than even Brainiac, or Luthor. He felt the only way to save the Earth, and redeem his species was in the eradication of the latter.

He reached the smoldering hole around which emergency workers were only just arriving, and descended right into the heart of the conflagration, eyes and ears scanning for any sign of life.

He saw mangled bodies everywhere. All of them dressed in black.

Up top, he had already seen more than a score of assassins still gripped in unyielding vines of some kind, and didn't have to guess that Poison Ivy had been fighting with Batman. How that had come about was a mystery even to him. Still, Bruce always did keep things to himself. Good, or bad. It just wasn't in him to trust anyone.

Even his own allies.

Sometimes, Superman wondered if Bruce knew how to trust.

Or if he even trusted himself.

He noted the destruction of the manor had all but buried the cavern where he kept his own secret headquarters under tons of flaming rubble. Still, as his ocular vision men called x-ray vision swept the rubble, he almost breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't find Bruce, or any of his recent…..guests.

Still, if they were the _vampiric_ sort, wouldn't they have…..disintegrated in the flames?

He grimaced, but rose once more, and landed near the fire chief who was directing his men to contain the flames near the edge of the crater, all while seeing to the men, some badly injured, who had obviously been savagely beaten, and left to lay.

"Pull your men back, Chief," Superman told him. "I'll extinguish the last fires. And you don't have to risk your men just now. There's no one alive down there."

"I'll take your word for it, Superman," he nodded grimly. "I just hope Mr. Wayne wasn't home. This looks like one party even he wouldn't have appreciated."

"So do I. He has done a lot of good for the city, and the nation, in spite of his…..eccentricities," he stated as the fire chief ordered his men back.

Once clear, Superman simply blew out the remaining flames before they could spread, the chilling degree of his powerful breath enough to crystallize the ground in places.

The chief, and his men, simply gaped.

"I don't mind saying, you make a hell of a fireman, Superman. I don't suppose you know who these guys are," he asked, gesturing to one of the assassins being led away on a stretcher to one of the waiting ambulances.

"Members of the League of Assassins," he told the chief. "So be careful. They're all dangerous, and hardcore fanatics."

"Well, someone didn't think so," a paramedic remarked. "This guy looks like someone crushed the bones in his hands to powder," he told Superman. "We had to knock him out just to stop his wailing."

Superman glanced down.

"Not powder, but he does have major fracturing throughout the metacarpals. I doubt he'll be using them again without extensive surgery."

"I'll take your word for it. He's going to be on morphine until we can get him to the ER, though. He was out of his head, babbling all kind of nonsense."

"What nonsense," Superman asked, having long since learned not to discount even the babble of some villains.

"Something about….the dark rising anew. About a sea of blood drowning the world."

Superman frowned at that.

"Did he say anything else?"

"Just that. He kept shouting the dark would rise anew. Just that."

"I'm guessing that isn't good," the chief asked Superman as the paramedics left them, carrying the man away.

"You'd better have the police question them. If they'll talk. If you'll excuse me," he said, and just looked up.

Just that fast, he was gone, almost blowing Chief Polanski from his feet as he departed.

"Damn," the man rasped, looking up at the sky. "I'll bet even the Bat isn't that fast."

**B**

"Ideas," Superman asked the convened League members when he returned to the Watchtower.

"I hate to say it, but I'm clueless when it comes to the mystic mumbo-jumbo guys," Flash told them. "Still, I gotta say, if old Ra's is back in any shape, or form, that does not spell good news."

"No. Has anyone heard from Bruce," Diana asked, looking genuinely concerned.

"Not a word. From the looks of the cave," Superman told her grimly, knowing from the way she called Batman by his name she was genuinely rattled. "It's possible…."

"No," the near divine Amazon spat. "Bruce is as much a warrior as any of us. Considering the odds he has already faced, even this….craven assault would not have claimed him. If anything, he likely came out the victor."

"From what I saw, there weren't any victors. Or survivors," Superman told her.

Diana's blue eyes narrowed on his.

"And do you honestly think that Bruce…. That _Batman_ would have left anything for his enemies, or anyone else to exploit, if his cave were compromised?"

Superman frowned.

"I have to admit, he's made a habit of pulling off the impossible, but…. All right, even if he did survive, we still don't know what is happening with him just now."

"I am afraid I do," a blue and gold figure arrived in a burst of light.

"Great," Diana muttered at the sight of the League's most powerful mystic. "More riddles."

"No riddles, Princess," the man in the golden helmet nodded as if in reverence to her. "A warning. I have sensed the rise of Chaos in the area of Gotham. And our colleague is indeed alive, and well. And at it's very heart."

"Are you saying that Batman is…..succumbing," Superman asked grimly.

"No. Only that he is, once again, at the very heart of the rising Chaos that is once more threatening to overwhelm this mortal plane."

"I sense there is more to your words than you say," J'onn frowned at him.

"You don't need magic, or telepathy to know that," John Stewart, back on Earth after a long absence shot. "But whatever else, if Batman is involved, I trust him to know what he's doing. When has he ever failed?"

Fate was characteristically silent as Diana and Superman stared at once another for a moment.

"This is it, isn't it," Diana finally turned to eye Dr. Fate. "This is his trial?"

"It could well be," Fate said. "I'm leaving to monitor the ethereal plane. But I felt it best to warn you that Chaos' war could soon be spilling over into the mortal sphere. Be wary, and know, things are not always as they appear."

The man vanished again, and Diana grumbled.

"I truly hate mystics," she declared.

"Hey, I with you, beautiful," Wally quipped. "Did anyone else make sense of what he said. You know, except for the whole 'doom and gloom' bit? Which wasn't too surprising, when you come down to it."

"There is a chance…. If Batman did survive, that he might be….succumbing to the darkness in him," Superman finally said. "If he is….."

"No. I don't believe that," Diana snapped. "Bruce would never…."

"Feelings aside," J'onn cut her off before the two could argue, "We cannot discount the League of Assassins' presence in this matter. Flash, you and Lantern should return to Central City. See what you can learn there. Diana, I suggest you and Superman go to Gotham. I will monitor things from here, and continue to research….other angles."

"So, if Bats has turned to the dark side, what do we do," Flash asked John as they headed for the teleport pad.

"Pray," the former Marine turned galactic hero remarked dryly.

"That's not funny," the colorful speedster shot back.

"I wasn't trying to be," the Green Lantern told him. "Think about it. Batman might just be, in the end, the most powerful member of the League. He's smarter, and a better tactician than anyone else we have. If he has….crossed over….."

"Okay, now I'm hoping Diana is right, because I'm not likeing the scenarios there."

"None of us do, Flash," John told him as they stepped onto the pad. "But we'll do whatever we have to do. Now, get your head in the game. We have assassins to hunt down."

"Right. I know just where to start looking," the younger hero grinned typically again. Follow me," he said, right before they vanished, teleporting down to the planet below.

_To Be Continued…._


End file.
